Manfred ‘disappointed’ if no A’s Vegas park by ’28
-
Jesse Rogers, ESPN Staff Writer
ORLANDO, Fla. — As uncertainty still hovers around the move of the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred is confident the plan will come together in time, both in the short and longer term.
“I would be disappointed if we didn’t open that stadium, Opening Day, 2028,” Manfred said Thursday from the owners meetings. “In terms of an interim home [from 2025 to 2028] I’m comfortable with where they are in the process.
“It’s not like we don’t know where they’ll be in 2024. They’re doing a good job of exploring them and find the best possible opportunity.”
The A’s lease at the Oakland Coliseum expires after this season so the team and league have been exploring places to play until their stadium in Las Vegas is complete. Manfred wouldn’t comment on potential cities, though Sacramento, Salt Lake City and staying in Oakland are all possible.
“They’re looking at all their revenue streams and figuring out where they can max out those streams,” Manfred said, adding that it will be ‘in the west.’
Owner John Fisher declined an opportunity for an interview Thursday.
The commissioner waved off any controversy surrounding comments Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman made on a podcast this week when she intimated the A’s should stay in Oakland. Not long after making those comments, Goodman softened her stance in a statement, saying she would ‘welcome’ the A’s.
“The governor, the Clark County officials, have all been supportive of the A’s moving to Las Vegas,” Manfred said. “She said one thing then said another so it kind of canceled each other out in my mind.”
Manfred also addressed the new stadium plan for the Rays in St. Petersburg, saying it’s working its way through the approval process.
“I spoke with [owner] Stu Sternberg [at the meetings],” Manfred said. “He’s positive about where the substance is. But we’re at the point now where it needs to go. It takes a long time to get in the ground and get a stadium built. The sooner the better.”
In other stadium news, Manfred is pleased the Chicago White Sox might be finding a new home in the city’s south loop, a day after the team released renderings of a new riverfront park. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf met with the mayor of Nashville during the winter meetings, sparking speculation of a move after the team’s current lease expires after the 2029 season.
“The White Sox are important to the city of Chicago,” Manfred said. “I’m excited about the possibility of a new facility there. I think the location would be great for them. I’d love to see Jerry at this point in his career get something done.”
While teams look to new stadiums, the Orioles are looking at a new owner after the Angelos family recently agreed to sell the team to billionaire investor David Rubenstein. The approval process is just beginning — but could move quickly.
“Once it’s public that there is going to be a sale, it leaves everyone in an awkward spot,” Manfred said. “I want to see that done as soon as possible.”
That could mean a vote before the next owners meetings or even before Opening Day, according to sources familiar with the situation. It takes 75% approval by existing owners for a sale to go through.
Other items on the week’s agenda at the Four Seasons included the owners sitting for a presentation by agent Casey Wasserman in relation to MLB players participating in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. If it was up to Manfred, MLB players would have consistent participation now that the sport has returned to the Olympics.
“I think the pros are the potential for an association between two great brands,” Manfred stated. “I love that combination of nationalism and sport.
“The con is the logistics. If you look at the calendar, its complicated by the proximity to the All-Star Game.”
The bigger question, according to some owners, is what happens after 2028. The Olympic Games are being held in Australia in 2032, doubling down on the logistical issues that come with pausing the major league season. It might lead to a ‘one-and-done’ event for major league players, something Wasserman helped push.
“I have always been of the view, we had multiple-year commitment,” Manfred said. “Casey softened me a little bit.”
The league is monitoring the Diamond Sports bankruptcy situation. Depending on its outcome, Manfred is hopeful to have at least a bundle of 14 teams to attract a streaming service to distribute in-market games as soon as 2025. Many teams are scrambling to fill revenue streams lost.
“This is a difficult time,” Manfred said. “Not only have we been unfamiliar with revenue declines — local media has been a fixed number for them. We have made clear we are exploring every opportunity to get them revenue in the short term. We’re trying to assure them with a vision as to what it’s going to look like longer term so we can rebuild that source of revenue.”
Manfred views the alliance between ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, which will produce a streaming service for sports fans, a win for MLB.
“I see that development as a positive,” Manfred said. “It’s another place that’s going to need to buy rights to make the platform go and be compelling. I think it’s good to have another buyer. It’s particularly good for us. It’s our three biggest partners.”
With all that’s on the table, the league won’t be expanding anytime in the near future but it’s on Manfred’s mind. Stadium deals for existing teams will need finalizing along with the long term for local broadcasting.
“We’re going to have to get our footing on local media a little bit better,” Manfred said. “In times of uncertainty, it’s hard to talk about additional change. Having said that, I have five years left [on his contract]. Those teams won’t be playing by the time I’m done but I would like the process along and [cities] selected.”
-
Buster Olney, ESPN Senior Writer
The hiring of Skip Schumaker as a senior advisor may mean that the Texas Rangers have their future manager under contract.
But if current manager Bruce Bochy, who is likely to be inducted into the Hall of Fame once his career is over, wants to continue beyond 2025, the Rangers will enthusiastically welcome that.
According to one source, Bochy will have the latitude to continue if that’s what he wants.
“If [Bochy] wants to manage beyond 2025, [the Rangers] are good with that,” a highly ranked source told ESPN.
Bochy, who turns 70 in April, just completed his 27th season managing in the big leagues — for the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants before he became the Rangers’ skipper in 2023 — and ranks eighth all time in managerial wins with 2,171, the most for any current manager.
Next season, he will likely pass Dusty Baker and Sparky Anderson on the list. Bochy’s teams have won four championships — the Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014, and the Rangers in 2023.
Schumaker, 44, is viewed as a rising star in the managerial ranks after his first two seasons, with the Miami Marlins.
Miami made the playoffs in 2023 and Schumaker was named National League Manager of the Year. But when the Marlins’ ownership effectively pushed out Kim Ng, the GM who hired Schumaker, he asked the team to void a 2025 option year on his contract, and he left the Marlins after the 2024 season.
One year into his tenure with the Padres, Mike Shildt has been rewarded with a two-year contract extension that ties the manager to San Diego through 2027.
The Padres announced the agreement Wednesday with the 56-year-old manager after they went 93-69, finishing five games behind the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West and claiming the top NL wild card.
“I am honored to continue leading this team toward Peter Seidler’s vision of bringing a World Series championship to San Diego,” Shildt said in a statement. “In collaboration with our players and coaching staff, we are committed to building on our success, serving our community and the City of San Diego, and delivering a winning team to our incredible and deserving fan base.”
San Diego swept a two-game wild-card series against the Atlanta Braves then took a 2-1 lead on the Dodgers in the best-of-five NL Division Series. Los Angeles bounced back to win the final two games 8-0 and 2-0.
The Padres tied for first in the majors with a .263 batting average and ranked sixth with a .745 OPS. Their 3.86 team ERA rated 12th, and their pitching staff’s 1,453 strikeouts came in sixth.
Shildt previously managed the Cardinals from 2018 to 2021, logging a 252-199 regular-season record and guiding St. Louis into the postseason in three of his four seasons. He was voted the NL Manager of the Year in 2019.
“As Mike demonstrated this year, he has an unwavering commitment to winning and a unique set of skills that got our group to perform at a high level,” Padres president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller said in a statement. “He possesses a true love for this team and the game of baseball, and I am thrilled to continue to work together with Mike to bring a championship to the City of San Diego.”
Field Level Media contributed to this report.
-
Ryan McGee, ESPN Senior Writer
Inspirational thought of the week:
Do you love me?
Do you wanna be my friend?
And if you do
Well then don’t be afraid to take me by the hand
If you want to
I think this is how love goes
Check yes or no
— “Check Yes or No,” George Strait
Here at Bottom 10 Headquarters, located among the giant concrete reinforcement pillars installed under the Indiana football offices to support Curt Cignetti’s self-confidence, we are still trying to process the ceaseless series of sea change/Earth change/mindset change/sleep-cycle change events that were thrust upon us over the course of only a few days’ time.
We had Halloween, turning the clocks back an hour, the release of a new Liam Neeson/Ron Perlman mob movie and a Week 10 slate that saw a gaggle of ranked teams pushed and/or upset by unranked teams, not to mention Pur-don’t and Northworstern going into OT.
And oh yeah, dummy me. I forgot the biggest event of them all. The one that was unfurling just as we were compiling these rankings Tuesday evening, Nov. 5, 2024. I am, of course, speaking of the #MACtion doubleheader of Boiling Green at Centralized Michigan and My Hammy of Ohio at Baller State. Oh, and the eve of “The Golden Bachelorette: The Men Tell All.”
With apologies to Joan Vassos, Jesse Palmer, Matt James, Tyler Cameron, Cleisthenes and Steve Harvey, here’s the post-Week 10 Bottom 10 rankings.
The good news is that the Golden (plated) Flashes, aka America’s last winless FBS team, did not lose their 18th straight game. The bad news is that it’s only because they didn’t play. Now they kick off Week 11 early with the first of four straight midweek games to end the season. It starts with a visit from fellow Ohioans Ohio, followed by a trip to fellow Ohioans My Hammy of Ohio, a visit from fellow Ohioans Akronmonious and then a trip to Buffalo, which isn’t in Ohio, but I’m pretty sure Ohio eats more Buffalo wings than any other state, so it feels like it is.
Brett Favre Funding U also managed to escape its open date without a loss ahead of hosting Marshall this weekend. The Olden Eagles are already eyeing their potential Pillow Fight of the Year of the Century in their season finale to Bottom 10 Waiting Lister Troy Bolton State. Actually, they’re already eyeing the weekend after that, when the season is finally over.
Speaking of the Waiting List, that’s where the Minors were just two weeks ago, but after back-to-back Pillow Fight losses to Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-Tech and Meh-dle Tennessee, they have jumped up off the bench outside and burst into the front door like me when the buffet hostess finally says, “McGee, party of one!” Now they will play in unprecedented Pillow Fight Three-peat against … yeah, like that hostess, we’re going to make you wait a minute.
Our old friends the Minuetmen also spent part of this fall on the Waiting List, but they answered the call of duty by following up their non-FBS win over Jack Wagner by getting housed by another Waiting List member, a fellow 2-7 squad out of the S-E-C, Miss Sus Hippie State. Now the Mess plays last week’s Coveted Fifth Spot winner Liberty. It’s always a weird headspace for a group of Revolutionary War soldiers to try to defeat Liberty.
The Tigers tumble down The Hill from the fancy-schmancy Coaches Poll top 10 into the Coveted Fifth Spot after losing to #goacc mid-packer Louisville. We were on the fence about whether to put Death Valley or Happy Valley into this slot, but our minds were made up after downing a bottle of refreshing water that had been winged at our heads from the Clemson student section.
Clemson fans threw debris onto the field after they were unhappy with a call.
Louisville scored on the very next play. pic.twitter.com/AI6SBYmRrM
— ESPN (@espn) November 3, 2024
I can hear the lobby conversation now. “Hey, Clemson, did y’all really just lose to Louisville and land in the Coveted Fifth Spot?” “Hey, FSU, did y’all really just lose by 24 points to North Carolina and is the only team you’ve beaten really Cal?” Then they both grab up their briefcases and head into the courtroom to explain why they are too good for the ACC.
The Buttermakers lost the B1G Bottom 10 Bowl presented by Rust-eze, falling to Northworstern in overtime. Now they finish the year with three of four games against top 10 teams in Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana. In related news, sources tell Bottom 10 JortsCenter that Purdue’s legendary engineering department is trying to invent one of those Tony Stark time machine thingies so they can fast forward to winter.
The New Owls have flown back into these standings after following up their first-ever win as an FBS program with their seventh-ever loss as an FBS program. Now they hit the road for their first-ever Pillow Fight of the Week, a matchup with border rival UTEPid. Told you we’d get to it.
If the Bottom 10 were a series “Game of Thrones” memes, this is where we’d see a photo of Boromir talking and giant white letters that read “ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY GET SMOKED 59-21 BY ONE-WIN UAB AND NOT END UP IN THE BOTTOM 10.” OK, sure, let’s go on and do it …
Working on this week’s #Bottom10 and, heads up northeastern Oklahoma… pic.twitter.com/7VUfH88njv
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) November 5, 2024
My OG Bottom 10 champs are back! The Panthers keep racking up moral victories. Their only actual victories came back-to-back in September over Chattanooga and Vanderbilt. So, if you’re scoring at home, and we are, Georgia State beat Vandy, who beat Bama, who has been ranked No. 1 and who beat Georgia, who has been ranked No. 1 and who beat Texas, who has been ranked No. 1. I almost printed this paragraph out on Georgia State stationery and nailed it to the door of the College Football Playoff selection committee meeting room at the Gaylord Texan, like Martin Luther at the Castle Church.
Waiting List: FA (not I) U, Akronmonious, Meh-dle Tennessee, WhyOMGing?, You A Bee?, Whew Mexico State, Temple of Doom, Utaw State, Charlotte 3-and-6ers, assistant coaches impersonating volcanos.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports7 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway